1. What Is Meant by the Law?
John Newton
You desire my thoughts on 1 Timothy 1:8: “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully”, and I willingly comply. I do not mean to send you a sermon on the text; yet a little attention to method may not be improper upon this subject, even in a letter to a friend. Ignorance of the nature and purpose of the law is at the bottom of most religious mistakes. This is the root of self-righteousness, the grand reason why the gospel of Christ is no more regarded, and the cause of that uncertainty and inconsistency in many who, though they profess themselves teachers, do not understand “what they say, nor whereof they affirm”. If we first state what is meant by the law, and then how we know the law is good, I think it will be easy to conclude what it is to use the law lawfully.
In many passages of the Old Testament, the law signifies the whole revelation of the will of God, as in Psalm 1:2 and 17:7. But the law, in a strict sense, is to be distinguished from the gospel. Thus the Apostle Paul considers it at large in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians. I think it evident that, in the passage you have proposed, the Apostle is speaking of the law of Moses. But, to have a clearer view of the subject, it may be proper to look back to an earlier period.
The law of God then, in the largest sense, is that rule or prescribed course which He has appointed for His creatures according to their several natures and capacities, so that they may answer the end for which He has created them. Thus it includes the inanimate creation. The wind or storm fulfills His word or law. He has appointed the moon for its seasons; and the sun knows its going down, and going forth, and performs all its revolutions according to its Maker’s pleasure. If we could suppose that the sun is an intelligent being, and if it should refuse to shine, or wander from the place in which God had placed it, it would then be a transgressor of the law. But there is no such disorder in the natural world. The law of God in this sense, or what many choose to call the law of nature, is no other than the result of God’s power, whereby all things continue and act according to His will from the beginning: for “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast”.
The animals destitute of reason are likewise under a law; that is, God has given them instincts according to their several kinds for their support and preservation, to which they invariably conform. God’s wisdom is unspeakably superior to man’s; it is visible in the structure of a bird’s nest, and the operation of a beehive. But this wisdom is restrained within narrow limits; they are incapable of either good or evil in a moral sense.
When God created man, he taught him more than the beasts of the earth and made him wiser than the fowls of heaven. He formed him for Himself, breathed into him an immortal spirit, gave him a capacity not to be satisfied with any creature good, and endowed him with an understanding, will and affections which qualified him for the knowledge and service of his Maker and a life of communion with Him. The law of God for man is therefore that rule for his disposition and conduct to which a creature so constituted ought to conform; thus the purpose for his creation is to be fulfilled and the wisdom of God manifested in him and by him.
For man to continue in this happy state was not inevitable. As he was capable of continuing in the state in which he was created, so he was capable of forsaking it. He forsook it when he sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. We are not to suppose that this prohibition was the whole of the law Adam was under, so that, if he had abstained from the tree of knowledge, he might in other respects have done (as we say) what he pleased. This injunction was the test of his obedience; while he regarded it, he could have no desire contrary to holiness, because his nature was holy. But when he broke through it, he broke through the whole law and stood guilty of idolatry, blasphemy, rebellion and murder. The divine light in his soul was extinguished; the image of God defaced; he became like Satan, whom he had obeyed; he lost his power to keep that law which was connected with his happiness.
Yet still the law remained in force; the blessed God could not lose His right to that reverence, love and obedience which His intelligent creatures must always show Him. Thus Adam became a transgressor and incurred the penalty, death. But God, who is rich in mercy, according to His eternal purpose revealed the promise of the Seed of the woman and instituted sacrifices as types of that atonement for sin, which the Seed of the woman should accomplish in the fullness of time by the sacrifice of Himself.
After his fall, Adam was no longer a public person.^2^ He was saved by grace, through faith; but the depravity he had brought upon human nature remained. His children, and so all his posterity, were born in his sinful likeness, without either ability or inclination to keep the law. The earth was soon filled with violence. But a few in every successive age were preserved by grace, by faith in the promise. Abraham was favoured with a more full and distinct revelation of the covenant of grace; he saw the day of Christ and rejoiced. In the time of Moses, God was pleased to set apart a people for Himself, and to them He gave His law with great solemnity at Sinai. This law consisted of distinct parts, very different in their scope and design though both enjoined by the same authority.
The Ten Commandments, uttered by the voice of God Himself, is a summary of the original law under which man was created; but published in a prohibitory form, for the Israelites, like the rest of mankind, were depraved by sin and strongly inclined to commit every evil. This law could not have been designed as a covenant, by obedience to which man should be justified; for long before its publication the gospel had been preached to Abraham (Gal 3:8). But the law entered that sin might abound; that the extent of sin, its evil and what it deserves might be known; for the law reaches to the most hidden thoughts of the heart, requires absolute and perpetual obedience, and denounces a curse on all who do not continue in it.
To this was added the ceremonial law, prescribing a variety of institutions, purifications and sacrifices, the observance of which were absolutely necessary to the acceptable worship of God during that dispensation. By obedience to these commands, the people of Israel preserved their legal right to the blessings promised to them as a nation, which were not confined to spiritual worshippers. They were likewise helps to lead those who truly feared God, and had conscience of sin, to look forward by faith to the great sacrifice, the Lamb of God, who in the fullness of time was to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. In both these respects the ceremonial law was abrogated by the death of Christ.
As Jesus had expiated sin and brought in an everlasting righteousness by His obedience unto death, all other sacrifices became unnecessary and vain. The gospel supplies the place of the ceremonial law, to the same advantage as the sun abundantly compensates for the twinkling of the stars and the feeble glimmering of moonlight, which are concealed by its glory. By the sacrifices, as they pointed to Christ, believers of old were relieved from their transgression of the moral law. Believers under the gospel are relieved by a direct application of the blood of the covenant. In both cases, believers renounce any dependence on the moral law for justification; they accept the moral law as a rule of life in the hands of the Mediator and are enabled to yield to it a sincere obedience, though not a perfect one.
If an Israelite, trusting in his obedience to the moral law, had ventured to reject the ordinances of the ceremonial law, he would have been cut off. Similarly, if any who are called Christians are so well satisfied with their moral duties that they see no necessity of making Christ their only hope, then the law, by which they seek life, will demand their death. Christ, and He only, delivers sinners, by faith in His name, from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for them.
^1^This is the first part of one of Newton’s letters. It is taken, with editing, from Newton’s Works, vol 1 (1985 Banner of Truth reprint).
^2^As a public person, Adam represented all his descendants in the covenant of works.